loosen someone's tongue
English
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Verb
editloosen someone's tongue (third-person singular simple present loosens someone's tongue, present participle loosening someone's tongue, simple past and past participle loosened someone's tongue)
- (informal, idiomatic) To cause one to speak more freely; to cause one to discuss a subject that would not usually be discussed.
- 1848, Anne Brontë, chapter 24, in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall[1]:
- He made a long stay in the dining-room after dinner, and, I fear, took an unusual quantity of wine, but not enough to loosen his tongue: for when he came in and found me quietly occupied with my book, too busy to lift my head on his entrance, he merely murmured an expression of suppressed disapprobation […]
- 1896, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “Chapter 4”, in The Island of Doctor Moreau (Heinemann’s Colonial Library of Popular Fiction; 52), London: William Heinemann, →OCLC; republished as The Island of Doctor Moreau: A Possibility, New York, N.Y.: Stone & Kimball, 1896, →OCLC:
- We relapsed into silence. Presently he laughed. “There’s something in this starlight that loosens one’s tongue. I’m an ass, and yet somehow I would like to tell you.”
- 1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “After the Race”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC:
- He admired the dexterity with which their host directed the conversation. The five young men had various tastes and their tongues had been loosened.
- 2000, Michael Chabon, chapter 11, in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay[2], New York: Random House, page 552:
- Tommy had apparently been plied with ice cream and soda pop at the police station, to loosen his tongue.
Translations
editto cause (someone) to be less cautious or more free in what they say
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